156 
THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. 
quite marvellous, would, by a sudden jerk, throw himself aside to the right 
or left, and escape the danger. Now he would run his arm into a fissure, 
which, if he found it too deep, he would probe with a boat-hook. When- 
ever he chanced to touch a bird, it would come out whirring like a shot in 
his face ; while others came flying from afar toward their beloved retreats 
with so much impetuosity as almost to alarm the bold rocksman. After 
much toil and trouble he procured only’ a few eggs, it not being then the 
height of the breeding season. You may imagine, good reader, how relieved 
I felt when I saw Mr. Emery drawn up, and once more standing on the 
bold eminence waving his hat as a signal of success. This happened in one 
of the Magdeleine Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
During severe winters, I have seen the Black Guillemot playing over the 
waters as far south as the shores of Maryland. Such excursions, however,* 
are of rare occurrence, and it is seldom that any of these birds are to be seen 
until you reach the Bay of Boston. About the different entrances of the 
Bay of Fundy, this species is a constant resident, and many individuals 
breed in fissures, at a moderate height above the water, on the rocky shores 
of the Island of Grand Manan. and others in the same latitude. Proceeding 
farther toward the north-east, we found them on Jesticoe Island, and wher- 
ever else we happened to touch on our way to Labrador, in which country 
there is a regular nursery of these birds. 
Unlike the Foolish and Thick-billed Guillemots, or the Razor-billed Auk, 
they do not confine themselves to any particular spot, but take up their 
abode for the season in any place that presents suitable conveniences. 
Wherever there are fissures in the rocks, or great piles of blocks with holes 
in their interstices, there you may expect to find the Black Guillemot. 
Whether European writers have spoken of this species at random, or after 
due observation, I cannot say. All I know is, that every one of them whose 
writings I have consulted, says that the Black Guillemot lays only one egg. 
As I have nO reason whatever to doubt their assertion, I might be tempted 
to suppose that our species differs from theirs, were I not perfectly aware 
that birds in different places will construct different nests, and lay more or 
fewer eggs. Our species always deposits three, unless it may have beeD 
disturbed ; and this fact I have assured myself of by having caught the birds 
in more than twenty instances sitting on that number. Nay, on several 
occasions, at Labrador, some of my party and myself saw several Black 
Guillemots sitting on eggs in the same fissure of a rock, where every bird 
had three eggs under it, a fact which I communicated to my friend Thomas 
Nuttall. What was most surprising to me was, that even the fishermen 
there thought that this bird laid only a single egg ; and when I asked then, 
how they knew, they simply and good-naturedly answered that they had 
